January’s New Year hopes are more than ever prayers for peace and justice for our world. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity live the Gospel as St. Francis did in fraternity, total self-emptying, joy and peace. With this spirit, we stream John Gorka’s No More War, a call to live peace in our own day in our relationships with others.
From New Jersey, John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter American folk musician who got his start at a neighborhood coffeehouse in eastern Pennsylvania. Though small, Godfrey Daniels was and is one of the oldest and most venerable music institutions and has long been a hangout for music lovers and aspiring musicians. John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him “the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement.”
Website: http://johngorka.com/
Guest Blogger
Franciscan Brother of Peace, Br. Paschal Listi, fbp, comments on the song.
The Franciscan Brothers of Peace were founded in 1982 by a co-founder of Pro-Life Action Ministries (originally PEACE of MN), our late Brother Michael Gaworski. This song by John Gorka speaks out against War, a bloody red wheel that must be stopped, and shows themes of faith (trust), hope, and justice with the Book of Amos and a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.
That bloody red wheel is violence. All violence matters, but as sheer numbers dictate, the Brothers must remind everyone that America has lost over 60 million children to abortion since 1973 when Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which have allowed parents to legally kill (or have a “doctor” kill) their living and growing children before birth. That is ten times the Nazi holocaust….on our watch. That’s twenty-one children a day just in Saint Paul, Minnesota….a kindergarten class lost. How many died today in your own town or region?
Peace is impossible as long as the war on the preborn child continues with legal protection. This war is rooted in self-protection (pride), at the expense of another, who is not doing violence to the first. All of us are tempted at some point to protect ourselves from something, even from our own mistakes. But when we protect ourselves in a way that does violence to another who is not being violent to us, we are waging war on the other! The innocent unborn child needs our protection, not a violent war…
Jesus Christ gave us the way of peace: back to the Father through His atoning blood and water; through His spoken and lived Beatitudes; through His empowering Spirit to live as children of the Father; through His merciful Sacraments; through His command to love and forgive in the prayer to “Our Father”. The Instrument of Peace prayer often attributed to St Francis captures humility-in-action, just the opposite of violent self-protection. These are the holy weapons in the just war against pride that must be fought daily in each person’s own heart. May Christ hand us the victory!
Finally, an MLK connection. His niece, Dr. Alveda King, Evangelist, is a national speaker and advocate for life. She applies her uncle’s passion for civil rights and nonviolence in a consistent, integral way to the rights of preborn children. Learn more about her ministry here.
You can help bend the moral arc toward justice: pray and work for peace with your neighbors-in-the-womb by supporting new Moms and families in your community: walking-with-moms-in-need.
